


Round in Circles (‘Till We Reach the End)

by finkpishnets



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-28
Updated: 2010-08-28
Packaged: 2017-10-28 12:56:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/308100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finkpishnets/pseuds/finkpishnets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben doesn’t miss being a normal teenager, not really, but sometimes he can’t help but wonder what it would be like just to be another seventeen-year-old high school student, starting his college applications and looking forward to senior year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Round in Circles (‘Till We Reach the End)

**Author's Note:**

> For the schmoop_bingo prompt ‘amusement park’.

Ben doesn’t miss being a normal teenager, not really, but sometimes he can’t help but wonder what it would be like to be just another seventeen-year-old high school student, thinking about college applications and looking forward to senior year. Gwen always rolls her eyes at him when he brings it up, reminds him just how much he hated it before, and she’s right, he knows she is, except that doesn’t stop him thinking about it from time to time.

He wonders whether he’d be popular, whether he’d belong to any clubs, be on any sports teams. Whether he’d have friends as good as the ones he has now. He doubts it but it’s a nice way to spend some time when he’s not saving the universe.

Sometimes though, sometimes it becomes more than idle thoughts and treads dangerously close into wishing, normally when he’s had a tough few weeks and feels as if the new bruises will finally be the ones to never fade. He’s quieter then, loses himself deeper within his own head, daydreaming about late assignments and prom and skateboarding at the weekends. Gwen doesn’t notice, is just thankful he’s shut up, but Kevin...Kevin watches him like he knows what Ben’s thinking, like he can see right through him and it’s become an all too frequent occurrence between the two of them for Ben to ignore.

Ben’s not going to pretend he doesn’t like knowing that Kevin watches him.

It’s one of those days, the lost sort, when Kevin finds him and throws his jacket into his lap.

“Come on,” he says, and Ben goes without question the way he’s pretty sure he always will.

“Where are we going?” he asks, buckling himself into Kevin’s car and watching the other boy’s profile, turning away when Kevin faces him.

“You’ll see.”

They drive for a while, Kevin’s iPod plugged into the speakers but otherwise silent, and it’s not uncomfortable, at least not on Ben’s side. Ben pretty much just likes being near Kevin whatever the circumstance.

Eventually they pull off the highway and Ben can’t help the smile that breaks across his face at the sight of towering metal structures.

“You’ve brought me to an amusement park,” he says, a little amazed and a little confused, and Kevin shrugs awkwardly, rubs a hand across the back of his neck.

“I know you sometimes feel like you’re missing out on stuff, so, you know…”

“Thank you,” Ben says, and he wants to kiss him so badly. He gets out the car instead, stretches his arms above his head and follows Kevin towards the entrance gates.

“I’ve got it,” Kevin says, batting Ben’s arm away when he reaches for his wallet, and Ben has to shake his head when ‘ _date_ ’ flashes is neon letters in front of his eyes.

“So,” he says once they’re through, “where to first?”

They spend their day going from ride to ride, and Ben has a laughing fit when he realizes how nervous Kevin is on rollercoaster’s and then proceeds to push ahead on the next one until Kevin calms down. It’s a really great day, fun and easy with no extraterrestrial threats and Ben gets to stand as close to Kevin as he wants under the guise of busy queues.

They eat donuts and burgers and drink too much soda and get soaked on the water rides and fit in easily amongst the swarm of other teenagers, and it’s enough to quench Ben’s need for normalcy, at least for now.

By the time they leave, Ben’s exhausted - a different kind of exhaustion, the sort that leaves a pleasant ache in his bones and his tongue heavy in his mouth – and he thinks that he might just be more in love with Kevin than ever.

“So,” Kevin says as they’re driving back, and Ben’s watching him close enough to see the light blush that spreads up his neck. “Good day?”

“Great day,” Ben grins, and Kevin returns it. “Thanks.”

“Sure.”

“Want to come up?” Ben says when they get back, nodding towards his room, and Kevin shrugs and takes the stairs two at a time, jumping back onto Ben’s bed like he’s done a thousand times before. Ben’s heart lodges somewhere low in his chest like always.

“So,” Ben says when he’s sure his voice will come out normally, “today was just about getting me out of my funk?”

“Yeah,” Kevin says. “I know how bitchy you can get.”

“You know, for how tough you like to think you are, you’re actually just a marshmallow, huh?” Ben teases, and Kevin kicks at his leg whilst Ben laughs.

“Please,” Kevin scoffs, “I just wanted to cut this mood off before it gave me a headache.”

“And yet you’re the only one to bring it up.”

“Gwen’s too nice,” Kevin says dismissively, but he presses his foot against Ben’s thigh to let him know he’s kidding.

Ben’s ready to laugh it off but Kevin doesn’t move his foot away, keeps up a constant pressure, and he’s looking at the ceiling rather than at Ben, and Ben’s heart stutters a little inside his chest because maybe, _maybe_ …

“Kevin,” he says, and his voice comes out lower than he expected, deep and breathy.

“Yeah?” Kevin says, only it’s more of an answer than a question and Ben’s pretty sure this is too good to be true.

He looks up at him then, his pupils blown, and Ben’s suddenly aware that Kevin’s waiting for him to make the first move.

 _That_ is no problem.

He leans forward, grabs Kevin behind the neck and pulls him into a kiss that’s fast and rough and everything Ben has been hoping for. Kevin’s hands find their way to his hips, tug him forward rather than away, and Ben tumbles into him ungracefully but it changes the angle of their bodies enough to make him moan.

“So, today was a date then?” he says breathlessly after a while when he has to break away to breathe, one hand sliding underneath Kevin’s t-shirt and running blunt fingernails across skin as Kevin arches beneath him.

“Yes,” Kevin says, and he sounds just as wrecked as Ben does.

“Awesome,” Ben says against his mouth, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth and grinning into the kiss.

“Still considering abandoning us for a ‘normal life’?” Kevin asks, and Ben laughs into his collarbone.

“Nah,” he says, smiling. “Normal’s overrated.”


End file.
